Multi-folded structure of snorkel equipment

ABSTRACT

A multi-folded structure of a snorkel equipment is provided. The snorkel equipment may include a breathing tube and a mask. The multi-folded structure may be formed between an upper portion and a lower portion opposite to the upper portion of the breathing tube; thereby the breathing tube is capable of being bent by the multi-folded structure. Besides, the snorkel equipment may include a mouthpiece. The multi-folded structure may be formed between a connecting end and a user contact end user contact end opposite to the connecting end of the mouthpiece so as to increase freedom of the user contact end with respect to the connecting end.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Prov. Ser. No.63/326,418 filed on Apr. 1, 2022, which are incorporated in its entiretyby reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a snorkel equipment, in particular to abreathing tube and a mouthpiece for snorkeling.

Descriptions of the Related Art

At present, a snorkel equipment can be roughly in two categories. Onecategory is a two-piece snorkel equipment, that is, a mask covering theuser's eyes and nose, and a breathing tube at one end contained in theuser's mouth. The equipment in this category only provides the user withmouth breathing. The other category is one-piece snorkel equipment,which is a mask that allows the user's mouth and nose to breathe freely.There is a breathing tube at the top, which is in fluid communicationwith the interior of the mask. The equipment in this category is theso-called full-face snorkeling mask (FFSM). However, no matter whichcategory of equipment, a breathing tube is required, and the breathingtube occupies a certain volume, especially in length, so it is extremelyinconvenient to store. Moreover, because most breathing tubes are madeof hard plastic materials, they are easy to be broken or damaged due toexternal impact.

Taking a typical FFSM as an example, since the mask must cover the eyes,nose, and mouth, the size of the mask body cannot be minimized ideally.Furthermore, the breathing tube extends upward from the top of the maskand is in fluid communication with the interior of the mask. In order tomeet the basic needs of snorkeling, the breathing tube must have acertain length (usually about 20 cm), resulting in that the overall sizeis difficult to reduce and the overall profile is irregular.Accordingly, the storage of the FFSM will cause a lot of troubles, andbroken breathing tubes have been reported often by consumers. Althoughthe manufacturer has designed the breathing tube to be detachable toovercome the above-mentioned shortcomings, it is quite troublesome forusers to disassemble and assemble repeatedly, and improper storage afterdisassembly will easily reduce the watertightness between the breathingtube and the mask body. In addition, the separate objects can be lost orforgotten easily while carried. Therefore, generally speaking, themanufacturer or consumers do not like the detachable design of a maskwith a detachable breathing tube. Furthermore, because almost all of theexisting breathing tubes are rigid and straight, taking the dry-topbreathing tube as an example, the air intake and water tightness at thetop thereof need to be precisely controlled by the drop and rise of thefloater within the top respectively. This is required to rely on acertain degree of verticality between the axis of the breathing tube andthe horizontal plane of water surface. However, when the user snorkels,because the viewing angle will be changed at any time, the angle betweenthe axial direction of the tube and the water surface plane is often toofar from 90 degrees, so that the floater may not be smoothly descendedand ascended by its gravity and buoyancy, respectively. It will oftenresult in insufficient air intake, or poor water stop effect.

In addition, since the snorkel equipment has a mouthpiece, the user mustactually hold the mouthpiece in the user's mouth and contain it with acertain force to prevent the mask from water leaking or beingdislocated. However, users have different face and mouth shapesaccording to age and gender, and there are great differences betweenOrientals and westerners. Moreover, the snorkel equipment or breathingtube will swing during snorkeling due to water flow. As a result, themouthpiece being contained in the mouth is more likely to be pulledaway, which makes the user have to contain the mouthpiece harder andmakes the user extremely uncomfortable and become exhausted easily.

Given this, there is an urgent need in the art for a technology thatpartially or wholly improves the shortcomings mentioned above to improvethe product in storage and ease of use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An objective of the present invention is to provide a breathable mask,of which the tube body is designed to be bendable so that the upperportion of the breathing tube can be moved to the lower portion of themask body as close as possible when bent. Accordingly, when thebreathable mask of the present invention is stored, the storage troublescaused by the length of the breathing tube can be greatly reducedwithout disassembling the breathing tube. Moreover, since the breathingtube does not need to be disassembled, it can prevent the disassemblinginterface from becoming loose and causing water leaking, and also avoiddirt remaining at the place of repetitive assembly and disassembly.Meanwhile, it can solve the problem of easy loss of separate objects. Inaddition, through the extension of this design, the snorkel can beslightly bent by the user during snorkeling, so as to increase thesmoothness of air intake and the water-stop effect of the snorkel.

To achieve the aforesaid objective, the present invention provides amulti-folded structure of snorkel equipment. The snorkel equipmentincludes a breathing tube and a mask. The breathing tube includes anupper portion and a lower portion opposite to the upper portion. Thelower portion is connected to the mask and is in fluid communicationwith an interior of the mask. The multi-folded structure is formedbetween the upper portion and the lower portion, thereby the breathingtube is capable of being bent by the multi-folded structure.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a snorkelequipment with a mouthpiece, in which the mouthpiece is designed to haveconsiderable stretchability, flexibility or elasticity. Accordingly, themouthpiece of the snorkel equipment of the present invention can beapplied to users of various ages, genders, face shapes and mouth shapesto increase the comfort of use.

To achieve the aforesaid objective, the present invention provides amulti-folded structure of snorkel equipment. The snorkel equipmentincludes a mouthpiece. The mouthpiece includes a connecting end and auser contact end opposite to the connecting end. The multi-foldedstructure is formed between the connecting end and the user contact endso as to increase freedom of the user contact end with respect to theconnecting end.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a snorkel equipment according to anembodiment of the present invention, which includes a breathing tubewith a multi-folded structure.

FIGS. 2A-2C depict different exemplary aspects of the multi-foldedstructure of the present invention.

FIG. 3A illustrates the stretched state of the multi-folded structure ofthe breathing tube as shown in FIG. 1 .

FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view of the multi-folded structure, showingthe connection relationship between the upper and lower portions of thebreathing tube and the multi-folded structure when the multi-foldedstructure is in the stretched state.

FIG. 3C is another cross-sectional view of the multi-folded structure,showing the state in which the upper and lower portions of the breathingtube have been coupled with each other when the multi-folded structureis in a compressed state.

FIG. 3D is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of themulti-folded structure, showing schematic diagram of a slightly bendablestructure when the multi-folded structure is in the stretched state.

FIG. 3E is another cross-sectional view of FIG. 3D, showing thecompressed state of the multi-folded structure.

FIG. 4 illustrates the state in which the breathing tube shown in FIG. 3is bent by the multi-folded structure.

FIG. 5 is a rear view of the mask of the snorkel equipment shown in FIG.1 .

FIG. 6 is a rear view of a mask of a snorkel equipment according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a mouthpiece with a multi-folded structureaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic view in which the mouthpiece of shown in FIG. 7 isapplied to the breathing tube of the traditional two-piece snorkelequipment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In the following description, the present invention will be explainedwith reference to various embodiments thereof. These embodiments of thepresent invention are not intended to limit the present invention to anyspecific environment, applications or particular method forimplementations described in these embodiments. Therefore, thedescription of these embodiments is only for the purpose of illustrationrather than to limit the present invention. It shall be appreciatedthat, in the following embodiments and the attached drawings, elementsnot directly related to the present invention are omitted from thedepiction, and dimensional proportions among individual elements in theattached drawings are provided only for ease of understanding but not tolimit the actual scale of the present invention.

The first embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 , whichis a schematic view of a snorkel equipment 1 with a multi-foldedstructure. The snorkel equipment 1 of this embodiment is a breathablemask, which includes a breathing tube 11 and a mask 13. The breathingtube 11 includes an upper portion 11 a and a lower portion 11 b oppositeto the upper portion 11 a. The lower portion 11 b is connected to themask 13 and is in fluid communication with the interior of the mask 13.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the multi-folded structure 11 c is formed betweenthe upper portion 11 a and the lower portion 11 b of the breathing tube11. In this way, the breathing tube 11 can be bent by the multi-foldedstructure 11 c.

For example, the multi-folded structure 11 c can have a continuouszigzag shaped cross section 2 a (as shown in FIG. 2A), a continuousrectangular shaped cross section 2 b (as shown in FIG. 2B), a continuousconvex-concave shaped cross section 2 c (such as FIG. 2C) or anycombinations thereof.

Due to the consideration that the multi-folded structure 11 e needs tobe deformed when bending the breathing tube 11, the multi-foldedstructure 11 c is made of a soft material. The soft material preferablyhas a Shore A hardness of 20-70 and is selected from silicone,thermoplastic rubber (TPR) (e.g., thermoplastic elastomers, TPE),thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polyvinylchloride (PVC) orcombinations thereof.

It shall be appreciated that in this embodiment, the breathable mask isused as the snorkel equipment for illustration, but another snorkelequipment with a breathing tube and a mask (for example, an FFSM or asnorkel mask with an eyes-nose mask connected to a mouthpiece viathree-way connector) also can adopt the multi-folded structure of thepresent invention.

FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 are referenced for a snorkel equipment 1 according toa second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, themulti-folded structure 11 e is telescopic. FIG. 3 illustrate thestretched state of the multi-folded structure 11 e and FIG. 4 shows thestate that the breathing tube 11 can be bent by the multi-foldedstructure 11 e. As shown in FIG. 4 , the upper portion 11 a of thebreathing tube can be close to the lower portion of the mask 13 whenbeing bent. Accordingly, when the snorkel equipment of the presentinvention is stored, the storage troubles caused by the length of thebreathing tube can be greatly reduced without disassembling thebreathing tube. Especially in the case that the snorkel equipment wherethe breathing tube and the mask are assembled as one piece, whether thebreathing tube can be folded and stored is critical to the user becauseit involves whether it is compact to carry.

In addition, when wanting to use the snorkel equipment 1, the user onlyneeds to bend the breathing tube 11 shown in FIG. 4 back to thestretched state shown in FIG. 3 and compress it in the axial directionback to the original state as shown in FIG. 1 , thereby the originalrigidity of the breathing tube 11 can be restored without affecting theuse at all.

In another embodiment, the multi-folded structure 11 e can be disposedbetween a periphery of the lower end of the upper portion 11 a and aperiphery of the upper end of the lower portion 11 b. In this case, whenthe multi-folded structure 11 e is compressed, the lower end of theupper portion 11 a and the upper end of the lower portion 11 b areadapted to tightly couple with each other. For example, one of the lowerend of the upper portion 11 a and the upper end of the lower portion 11b may have a male fastener and the other thereof may have a femalefastener nested to be coupled with the male fastener to achieve beingtightly coupled with each other.

Taking FIG. 3B as an example, the multi-folded structure 11 e can bedisposed between the periphery P1 of the lower end of the upper portion11 a and the periphery P2 of the upper end of the lower portion 11 b.The lower end of the upper portion 11 a has a female fastener 11 a 1,and the upper end of the lower portion 11 b has a male fastener 11 b 1.Therefore, when the multi-folded structure 11 e is in the compressedstate, the male fastener 11 b 1 of the lower portion 11 b can beinserted into the female fastener 11 a 1 of the upper portion 11 a to betightly coupled with each other, in order to form a state as shown inFIG. 3C. In this way, the breathing tube 11 can be ensured to havesufficient rigidity, making the selection of the soft material for themulti-folded structure 11 e more flexible.

In addition, in another embodiment, at least one of the lower end of theupper portion 11 a and the upper end of the lower portion 11 b of thebreathing tube 11 can be slightly bendable after the male fastener iscoupled with the female fastener.

For example, as shown in FIGS. 3D and 3E, the lower end of the upperportion 11 a can be slightly bent, which includes: a first segment S1, asecond segment S2 axially separating from the first segment S1 and thetwo angle adjustable devices AD oppositely disposed on an outer side ofthe lower end of the upper portion 11 a (only one of which is shown).Each of the angle adjustable devices AD has an end being fixed onto thefirst segment S1, and an opposing end pivoting onto the second segmentS2. In addition, each of the angle adjustable devices AD furtherincludes a plurality of recesses RS, and a bump BP disposed on thesecond segment S2. The bump BP is capable of engaging in one of therecesses RS, thereby the first segment S1 and the second segment S2 canbe performed with a stepped angle adjustment and positioned. Forexample, five stages of angle adjustment are designed, wherein the firstand second stages are set for slightly bending the breathing tubeforward, and the fourth and fifth stages are set for slightly bendingthe breathing tube backward, whereas and the third stage is forreturning the tube to its original position.

Each of the angle adjustable devices AD is made of a rigid materialselected from Polypropylene (PP), polycarbonate (PC), Polyvinylchloride(PVC) or combinations thereof.

By virtue of the slightly bendable structure of the breathing tube 11,which can preferably be bent forward or backward by 30 degrees, when theuser snorkels and the top of the breathing tube 11 is above the watersurface, the breathing tube 11 can be can be adjusted by the user to adirection where its top moves farther away from the water surface. Thiscan further prevent flowing seawater from splashing into the breathingtube 11 and accelerating water accumulation in the mask 13. Moreover,this structure can also avoid the floater's rising in error which iscaused by the seawater entering the breathing tube 11, and then blockingthe air intake channel for the user to inhale.

In another aspect, when the user snorkels and the top of the breathingtube 11 is under the water surface, this design allows the user toslightly adjust the angle of the breathing tube 11, so that the floatercan rise to the topmost more smoothly, and get a better water stopeffect.

Please refer to FIG. 5 for a snorkel equipment 1 according to a thirdembodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a rear view of thesnorkel equipment 1. However, in order to illustrate the mask 13clearly, the breathing tube 11 is omitted in FIG. 5 and not shown. Inthis embodiment, the mask 13 of the snorkel equipment 1 includes a mainframe 131, a lens 133, a waterproof skirt 135 and a purge valve 137. Thelens 133 is connected with the main frame 131.

A part of the waterproof skirt 135 is embedded in the main frame 131.The waterproof skirt 135 has a partition 135 a to divide the interior ofthe mask 13 into an upper chamber 202 and a lower chamber 204. In thisway, when a user wears the mask 13, the user's eyes can be suitablyaccommodated in the upper chamber 202, and the user's nose and mouth canbe suitably accommodated in the lower chamber 204. In addition, thepurge valve 15 is disposed in a lower portion of the mask 13 and is inone-way fluid communication with the lower chamber 204.

In other embodiments, the mask of the snorkel equipment may only coverthe eyes and nose, leaving the mouth exposed. In this aspect, the lowerchamber of the mask only accommodates the user's nose.

In addition, the waterproof skirt 135 may further include a chin strap135 b for the user to place the chin strap 135 b on the chin to increasethe stability of the snorkel equipment 1 when snorkeling. The chin strap135 b can be integrally formed with the waterproof skirt 135 under thewaterproof skirt 135, which is just aligned with the jawbone of mostusers for them to easily to put on and fasten. In other embodiments, thechin strap can also be equipped under the waterproof skirt 135 in areasonable way, such as being assembled or glued, so the installationmethod of the chin strap does not limit the scope of the presentinvention.

In addition, in one embodiment, the lower portion 11 b of the breathingtube 11 can be integrally extended from the lens 133. Of course, it canalso be integrally extended by other parts of the mask 13, such as themain frame 131. In other words, the so-called breathing tube 11 is notnecessarily a concrete and independent tube. Any element extendingupward from the mask 13 belongs to the breathing tube 13 as named.

FIG. 6 is referenced for a snorkel equipment 1 according to a fourthembodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a rear view of thesnorkel equipment 1. However, in order to illustrate the mask 13clearly, the breathing tube 11 is also omitted in FIG. 6 and not shown.In this embodiment, the snorkel equipment 1 further includes amouthpiece 15. The mouthpiece 15 includes a connecting end 15 a and auser contact end 15 b opposite to the connecting end 15 a. Theconnecting end 15 a is connected with the purge valve 137. The usercontact end 15 b is for the user's mouth to contain.

A fifth embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 7 ,illustrating a mouthpiece 75 with a multi-folded structure. Themouthpiece 75 includes a connecting end 75 a and a user contact end 75 bopposite to the connecting end 75 a. The multi-folded structure 75 c isformed between the connecting end 75 a and the user contact end 75 b, soas to increase freedom of the user contact end 75 b with respect to theconnecting end 75 a.

Similarly, in one embodiment, the multi-folded structure 75 c has atleast one of a continuous zigzag shaped cross section 2 a (as shown inFIG. 2A), a continuous rectangular shaped cross section 2 b (as shown inFIG. 2B) and a continuous convex-concave shaped cross section 2 c (asshown in FIG. 2C).

In addition, in one embodiment, the multi-folded structure 75 c is madeof a soft material. The soft material has a Shore A hardness of 20-70and is selected from silicone, thermoplastic rubber (TPR) (e.g.,thermoplastic elastomers, TPE), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU),polyvinylchloride (PVC) or combinations thereof.

The mouthpiece 75 of the present invention can be applied to a varietyof snorkel equipment, such as the aforementioned snorkel equipment 1(that is, the mouthpiece 15 of the snorkel equipment 1 is replaced bythe mouthpiece 75, so that the mouthpiece 75 can be connected to thepurge valve 137 through the connecting end 75 a) or the traditionaltwo-piece snorkel equipment with the separate breathing tube and mask(that is, as shown in FIG. 8 , the mouthpiece 75 is connected to thelower portion 83 b of the breathing tube 83 of the two-piece snorkelequipment through the connecting end 75 a). Accordingly, the mouthpiece75 of the present invention can reduce the load of the user's mouth tocontain, making it more convenient for the user to use.

In addition, it can be conceived that the multi-folded structure 75 ccan be applied to a mouthpiece set, in which the mouthpiece must beconnected to the purge valve 137 through the connector, that is, thelower portion of the mouthpiece body is connected to the connector, andthen connected to the purge valve 137 through the connector. In thisaspect, the mouthpiece body does not have a multi-folded structure,while the connector has a multi-folded structure.

To sum up, the multi-folded structure of the snorkel equipment of thepresent invention can be adopted on the breathing tube, the mouthpieceof the snorkel equipment, or both at the same time. When themulti-folded structure is adopted on the breathing tube, themulti-folded structure makes the breathing tube bendable, whichsignificantly reduces the storage trouble caused by the length of thebreathing tube without disassembling the breathing tube. In addition,when the multi-folded structure is adopted on the mouthpiece, themouthpiece has considerable stretchability, flexibility or elasticity,and it can be applied to users of various ages, genders, face shapes andmouth shapes so as to increase the comfort of use.

The above-mentioned embodiments are only used to illustrate theimplementations of the present invention and explain the technicalfeatures of the present invention, and are not used to limit the scopeof the present invention. Any changes or equivalent arrangements thatcan be easily accomplished by people skilled in this art fall within thescope of the present invention, and the scope of the present inventionshould be limited by the claims of the patent application.

What is claimed is:
 1. A multi-folded structure of a snorkel equipment,the snorkel equipment comprising a breathing tube and a mask, thebreathing tube including an upper portion, and a lower portion oppositeto the upper portion, the lower portion being connected to the mask andbeing in fluid communication with an interior of the mask; wherein themulti-folded structure is formed between the upper portion and the lowerportion, thereby the breathing tube is capable of being bent by themulti-folded structure.
 2. The multi-folded structure of claim 1,wherein the multi-folded structure has at least one of a continuouszigzag shaped cross section, a continuous rectangular shaped crosssection, and a continuous convex-concave shaped cross section.
 3. Themulti-folded structure of claim 2, wherein the multi-folded structure ismade of a soft material, and the soft material has a Shore A hardness of20-70 and is selected from silicone, thermoplastic rubber (TPR),thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polyvinylchloride (PVC) orcombinations thereof.
 4. The multi-folded structure of claim 3, whereinthe multi-folded structure is telescopic.
 5. The multi-folded structureof claim 4, wherein the multi-folded structure is disposed between aperiphery of a lower end of the upper portion and a periphery of anupper end of the lower portion, thereby when the multi-folded structureis compressed, the lower end of the upper portion and the upper end ofthe lower portion are adapted to tightly couple with each other.
 6. Themulti-folded structure of claim 5, wherein one of the lower end of theupper portion and the upper end of the lower portion has a male fastenerand the other thereof has a female fastener to be coupled with the malefastener.
 7. The multi-folded structure of claim 6, wherein at least oneof the lower end of the upper portion and the upper end of the lowerportion is slightly bendable after the male fastener is coupled with thefemale fastener.
 8. The multi-folded structure of claim 7, wherein thelower end of the upper portion is slightly bendable, and comprising: afirst segment; a second segment axially separating from the firstsegment; and two angle adjustable devices, oppositely disposed on anouter side of the lower end of the upper portion, in which each of theangle adjustable devices has an end being fixed onto the first segment,and an opposing end pivoting onto the second segment; wherein each ofthe angle adjustable devices further includes a plurality of recesses,and a bump disposed on the second segment, in which the bump is capableof engaging in one of the recesses, thereby the first segment and thesecond segment is capable of being performed with a stepped angleadjustment and positioned.
 9. The multi-folded structure of claim 1,wherein the mask comprises: a main frame; a lens connected with the mainframe; a waterproof skirt having a portion embedded in the main frameand having a partition to divide the interior of the mask into an upperchamber and a lower chamber, so that when a user puts on the mask, eyesof the user are suitably accommodated in the upper chamber and at leasta nose of the user is suitably accommodated in the lower chamber; and apurge valve disposed in a lower portion of the mask and being in one-wayfluid communication with the lower chamber.
 10. The multi-foldedstructure of claim 9, wherein when the user puts on the mask, both ofthe nose and a mouth of the user are suitably accommodated in the lowerchamber.
 11. The multi-folded structure of claim 10, wherein thesnorkeling equipment further comprises: a mouthpiece including aconnecting end and a user contact end opposite to the connecting end, inwhich the connecting end is connected with the purge valve, and the usercontact end is adapted to be contained in the mouth of the user.
 12. Amulti-folded structure of a snorkeling equipment, the snorkelingequipment comprising a mouthpiece, the mouthpiece including a connectingend and a user contact end opposite to the connecting end; wherein, themulti-folded structure is formed between the connecting end and the usercontact end so as to increase freedom of the user contact end withrespect to the connecting end.
 13. The multi-folded structure of claim12, wherein the snorkel equipment comprises a breathing tube and a maskseparated from the breathing tube, and the mouthpiece is connected to alower portion of the breathing tube through the connecting end.
 14. Themulti-folded structure of claim 13, wherein the multi-folded structurehas at least one of a continuous zigzag shaped cross section, acontinuous rectangular shaped cross section, and a continuousconvex-concave shaped cross section.
 15. The multi-folded structure ofclaim 14, wherein the multi-folded structure is made of a soft material,and the soft material has a Shore A hardness of 20-70 and is selectedfrom silicone, thermoplastic rubber (TPR), thermoplastic polyurethane(TPU), polyvinylchloride (PVC) or combinations thereof.
 16. Themulti-folded structure of claim 12, wherein the snorkel equipmentcomprises a breathing tube and a mask connected to the breathing tube, alower portion of the mask has a purge valve, and the mouthpiece isconnected to the purge valve through the connecting end.
 17. Themulti-folded structure of claim 16, wherein the multi-folded structurehas at least one of a continuous zigzag shaped cross section, acontinuous rectangular shaped cross section, and a continuousconvex-concave shaped cross section.
 18. The multi-folded structure ofclaim 17, wherein the multi-folded structure is made of a soft material,and the soft material has a Shore A hardness of 20-70 and is selectedfrom silicone, thermoplastic rubber (TPR), thermoplastic polyurethane(TPU), polyvinylchloride (PVC) or combinations thereof.